My husband and I bought a second home in Flagstaff, Arizona back in 2021. Until we bought “The Grassland Mission” in 2023, we used the home just for us and our friends and family. Once we took on the pretty major expense of renovating our dream home, it became clear that we should turn the home into a vacation rental to help offset the cost of the mortgage and maintenance.
We’ve been hosting for about 6 months now and I am hooked! I love the work that goes into being a host. Every time we visit the home, I have a laundry list of things that I want to do based on guest feedback and general maintenance of the house. I truly enjoy this work, so I don’t look at it as a chore. I love making the house as beautiful and inviting as possible, so that guests feel welcome and at-home when they are there. I believe that every guest leaves a little of their energy in our home, and since my family and I still spend time there, I want that energy to be positive.
I think of each and every guest that stays in our home as a guest that I have invited. I also remember that every guest is there for a reason, and has paid a substantial amount of money to be there, so I owe it to them to make sure they have a great stay.
None of this feels like a burden to me. The fact that I get to make money doing this feels too good to be true sometimes! Yes, there are guests that can cause some headaches, but 99% of my interactions with guests are positive, so it overrides any negative experiences.
So far we have received all 5-star reviews on our home, except for one 4-star (see above where I mentioned the headache!) I believe that there are a handful of things that we do that help us to earn those 5-star reviews. They are not difficult to do, nor are they expensive. Every host who wants to build a 5-star experience for their guests could copy any or all of these habits and I know they will make a difference.
- I leave a gift for every guest who stays with us
- We use creative, professional photos and detailed descriptions of the space
- We are realistic about the amount of guests we will host
- We communicate often with our guests, with respect and kindness
- I redecorate the home based on the season
- Our home is incredibly dog friendly
- We provide plenty of baby and kid gear for our guests to use
- We go overboard with labels, signs and organization
- We put extra care and attention into the backyard
In coming posts I will break down each of these habits and link them to the list above. My goal is to help people like me, who love hosting and want to continually improve their guests’ experience.
In the next 6 months (once we move into our new house), we’ll be setting up a new rental in the home that we live in now. This rental will be much different than our Flagstaff rental, but we’re still going to use the same principles outlined above (minus the dog-friendly aspect, we will most likely forego allowing dogs in this new rental.)
My intention is to build both of these homes into a business that will allow us to generate income, use the homes when we want to and build equity along the way. I look at these as a long term investment, not a way to generate extra income or a “side-hustle”. In reality, if we intend to continuing using the homes, we don’t really add to our monthly cash flow by keeping them. We would make more money now if we sold them both. However, these homes are part of our long-term real estate investment strategy.
A couple of caveats to any advice that you read on this blog regarding our Airbnbs – we bought both of these homes before interest rates and real estate values sky-rocketed. The reality is that if you’re looking to purchase a home to use as a rental now, you will find it much more difficult to make ends meet. Our homes are both at 3.25% interest and very low debt-to-value ratios. This is huge. There is no good advice I can give you to accomplish this except to go back in time and buy a home 5 years ago.
That being said, if you’re looking to turn your current home into an Airbnb or are simply looking for some strategies on a rental you already own, I’m your girl! I am not here to teach anyone to “get rich” on Airbnb… there are plenty of people on TikTok for that! 🙂
